She was arrested and charged for possession and discharge of a weapon on school property too

A teenage girl from Florida has been expelled from her high school for an accidental explosion caused by mixing chemicals together [outside] on school grounds.

Kiera Wilmot, 16, a Bartow High School student in Florida, was expelled from school when her chemistry experiment exploded. She was mixing some household chemicals (toilet cleaner and aluminum foil) in an 8-ounce water bottle when the top popped off unexpectedly and an explosion occurred.

According to Wilmot, she thought this combination would simply create a bit of smoke, and that the explosion was an accident.

However, Wilmot was arrested on Monday and charged with possession and discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device.

Kiera Wilmot

She was also expelled from school, and will now have to continue her high school career in an expulsion program.

These extreme consequences are due to zero-tolerance programs, which were enacted in schools in 1994. At that time, Congress required states to adopt laws that expelled students who brought firearms to school for at least a year. All 50 states adopted the laws in order to receive federal funding.

Many are in opposition of these laws, saying that it isn't fair to good kids who make occasional mistakes. Many oppose what happened to Wilmot as well, but the school district has responded to the incident saying that they reacted properly, as the law requires.

"Unfortunately, what she did falls into our code of conduct," Leah Lauderdale, a spokeswoman for the district, tells Riptide. "It's grounds for immediate expulsion.

"We urge our parents to convey to their kids that there are consequences to their actions."

Your assertion that popping packing bubbles is "making bombs" is just as stupid as your assertion that making a Drano bomb isn't making a bomb.

You even described it yourself!

quote: If you put it in an unvented container the pressure builds up till the lid pops off.

...only you're poo-pooing the reaction there. If you put a lid on it - like in a plastic soda bottle - the lid doesn't "pop off" - the bottle explodes.

Like a bomb. Which is what it is. Which is what you know it to be, despite your continued insistence on pretending it's something else.

Horrifically stupid people like you are ruining the world. Force this girl to take responsibility for her actions and own up to what she did, rather than pretend that her "science experiment" excuse is even slightly valid. Look at what you'd be teaching - "go ahead and do whatever you want...if you get caught, lie about it and maybe you'll get away with it."

If I blow and blow into a balloon and it pops ... is that now a "bomb" ? There's a lot of comment going on here w/no knowledge of her intent. Find me a teenager who hasn't played with illegal fireworks. Does that brand all off them terrorists, or even delinquents, in the making ? No, obviously not. The schools policy on this is a stupid as expelling kids for bringing a squirt gun to class (due to a no firearms policy). That the DA decided to arrest the kid rather than opening an investigation is equally stupid. We'll have to wait and see if charges are brought or if some sensibility will prevail.

Imagine if every speeding violation was treated as if it were speeding through the grade school parking lot doing 80 mph at recess. Adults would demand a degree of proportionality. Instead we teach the kids it's all or nothing. That's also the wrong lesson for them to learn.

quote: There's a lot of comment going on here w/no knowledge of her intent.

Her intent was to make a Drano bomb, following instructions from her friend to do so.

That's what she did. On school grounds. Without having alerted any school officials as to what she was doing.

There categorically is no doubt that her intent was to make a Drano bomb. There is not the slightest way anyone can give any credence to her "science experiment" excuse.

And AGAIN, I have made no statement whatsoever regarding whether or not the punishment was appropriate. I would just like all the world's retards to stop pretending she was doing anything other than making a Drano bomb, and that she didn't know exactly what was going to happen.

lol it's because people don't read past the author's bias. They failed to look past the sugar coated words. They failed to do further research besides what's presented in front of them.

This is all over the news and youtube. A simple google pops up more results than you want to see. None of them says the result is just some smoke. All of them says it could take off your fingers and cause burns from the acid. She did this on her own for her own enjoyment.

Lol, I don't know how so many people can't understand that every experiment yielded an explosion. But somehow her explosion was an accident. Give me a kit kat bar.

Do I think she should be expelled? noShe should be suspended for a couple weeks, kept on probation and have a serious talk with the police. Keep her away from the school and everyone else will only increases her chance of being a real criminal.

I agree and it's what I was trying to point out above. I don't believe it was her intent to harm anyone or anything. Being malicious or actually dangerous to others would warrant the actions taken to date. If she or her friend had been injured ... too bad for them. That would certainly have been a learning experience.

Punishments that don't account for the severity of the crime and intent are stupid.

What I've yet to hear is why this was done on school property. When we kids did (worse) "experiments" with real explosives, we always did them in the woods far away from adult eyes and ears.